Confused about GeneratePress? Discover the differences between free and premium versions, and which option is actually worth your time and money.
GeneratePress is a creation of Tom Usborne, the president and lead developer of EDGE22 Studios Ltd, headquartered in Canada. He also created other WordPress plugins, including GeneratePress Premium.
GeneratePress was developed with a focus on flexibility, lightweight, and performance. It lets you design a website like a professional without paying costly professional fees.
| GeneratePress Free | GeneratePress Premium | |
| Price | Free | $59 Yearly / $249 Lifetime |
| Full Width or Contained | | |
| Top Bar Widget Area | | |
| Back to Top | | |
| Featured Images | | |
| Footer Bar | | |
| Footer Widgets | | |
| Navbar Options | | |
| Inline Text or Image logo | | |
| Sidebar Layout | | |
| Content Container Options | | |
| Backgrounds | X | |
| Blog Layout | X | |
| More colour options | X | |
| Copyright | X | |
| Elements | X | |
| Menu Plus | X | |
| Secondary Navigation | X | |
| Sections | X | |
| Site Library | X | |
| Spacing | X | |
| Typography | X | |
| WooCommerce | X | |
| Import/Export | X | |
| Disable Elements | Single | Multiple |
What is GeneratePress Free?
GeneratePress Free is alightweight theme for WordPress. It has the basic features and customisation options that already allow you to design a good-looking website. Because it is free, it pales compared to GeneratePress Premium, but it still possesses unique features that other themes can’t beat.
GeneratePress Free Features
GeneratePress Free offers the following features and customisation options:
- Full Width or Contained – Customise your header whether within the container or spanned across the webpage. You can also customise text alignment and padding, add a background image and enable the parallax effect (the background image moves as you scroll).
- Top Bar Widget Area – Display your business contact information at the top of the page.
- Back to Top – Include a “back to top” button for easy navigation.
- Featured Images – Display feature images that you have already used on top of your post.
- Footer Widgets – Choose from the different footer widgets for your website.
- Footer Bar – Aside from Footer Widgets, this feature allows you to place your call to action and other information you want to let your audience know.
- Navbar Options – Includes a navigation bar on your website with drop-down links to only display what you select. This makes it easy to navigate your website when using a tablet or mobile device.
- Inline text or image logo – Arrange your website title in line with your logo and tagline.
The WordPress post editor also includes a few customisation options as you create your post, and these are:
- Sidebar Layout – You can add a sidebar layout, overriding the default layout settings.
- Content Container option – If you use GenerateBlocks or other page builder plugins, you have more options for customising your page layout. You can spread your page layout across your website or keep it contained within the content box.
- The GenerateBlocks plugin allows you to create unique layouts and designs for your website, which includes colours, free images, grids, and plenty of other customisation options.
- Disable Elements – Disable the post titles element.
GeneratePress Free Pros and Cons
To understand whether GeneratePress Free is good enough for your website design needs, here are its pros and cons:
Pros:
- Free
- Easy to use
- Good for beginners
- Lightweight
- Completely customizable
- You can use it without page builder plugins
Cons:
- Limited customization options
- Lacks drag-and-drop functionalities
- Creating a unique website may take time
GeneratePress Premium, also referred to as GP Premium, is the plugin for the GeneratePress theme. You need to purchase one of the two plans of GeneratePress Premium to download and install the plugin. Once activated, it unlocks the different customisation modules and features that GeneratePress Free does not have.
GeneratePress Premium offers two paid plans, which are:
- $59 GeneratePress Premium Yearly
- For use on up to 500 websites
- Includes all features and modules
- Full access to the Site Library
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 1-year support and updates
- $249 GeneratePress Premium Lifetime
- One-time payment only
- Includes everything from the yearly plan
- Lifetime premium support and updates
One of the GeneratePress Premium features that the free version does not have is the powerful modules that give you more customisation freedom.
- Backgrounds – This module allows you to add background images to your website. You can also customise its position and size, and import free images from your computer.
- Blog – This enables you to customise blog columns, authors, feature images, post dates, tags, archive blogs, and more.
- Colours – Choose from over 60 different colours to customise your website’s header, footer, buttons, widget colours, navigation, forms, content body, and so on.
- Copyright – This allows you to edit copyright information in your footer section.
- Disable Elements – Using this module allows you to enable or disable specific elements at the post or page level.
- Elements –Perhaps the most powerful module in GeneratePress Premium. It allows you to add dynamic page layouts, advanced hooks, and more. You can take advantage of the many advanced features to further customise your website.
- Menu Plus – Using this module lets you create mobile headers, sticky menus, off-canvas navigation, and more.
- Secondary Nav – This lets you create additional menus and add more layouts, colours, typography, and other elements to these menus.
- Sections – These are the mini page builders with more settings for your website design. If you are using the classic WordPress editor, you can use the sections module easily. However, if you are using the Gutenberg editor, you cannot use the section modules. You will need to download the GenerateBlocks plugin separately.
- Site Library – Save time in creating your website by selecting one from over 40 professional website designs in the Site Library.
- Spacing – This gives you the ability to customise the padding and margin size of headers, footers, containers, and more.
- Typography – Choose from over 200 Google and system fonts for your website and customise their font size, weight, spacing, colours, etc.
- WooCommerce – The WooCommerce module allows your website to be commerce-ready by adding product pages, checkout pages, and more. You can also use different typography, colours, and layout options for your pages.
- Import and Export – Easily import or export your theme settings in just a few clicks.
The GeneratePress Premium may have plenty of things to offer, but let’s check out its pros and cons as well to learn more about what you can get from it.
Pros:
- Hundreds of customisation options
- Build websites in a few minutes using the Site Library
- Still lightweight and does not affect the website’s loading speed
- SEO optimized
- Mobile friendly
- Page builders are not required
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Unparalleled support and active community
Cons:
- More expensive than other plugins
- It may take time to get used to all the controls and customisation options
Q1: Is GeneratePress free good enough for a blog?
A: For basic use, yes, but premium offers advanced features that improve speed, customization, and SEO.
Q2: Is GeneratePress premium worth the cost?
A: If you plan to grow your website professionally, the premium version offers significant advantages.
Q3: Can GeneratePress alone generate income?
A: No, it’s a tool; pairing it with Wealthy Affiliate training allows you to build a profitable website.
Q4: Are there alternative themes better than GeneratePress?
A: Many themes exist, but GeneratePress balances speed, customisation, and SEO for affiliate marketing success.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the GeneratePress Free and GeneratePress Premium provide you with website design features and customisation options unmatched by other themes and plugins.
It continues to gain popularity today and continues to rack up more positive reviews and ratings. It provides the design options you need so you can effectively design your website without putting too much weight on it and slowing it down.
Choosing between GeneratePress Free and Premium affects your website, but building a profitable online business requires more than a theme. With Wealthy Affiliate, you learn how to create a website, optimise content for SEO, and attract targeted traffic — turning your site into a real online asset rather than just a blog theme experiment.
✅ Learn how to grow your website into a business: Join Wealthy Affiliate